YouTube Democratic Debate Debuts on CNN
From health care to global warming, social security to Iraq, the questions of CNN/YouTube Democratic debate really ran the entire spectrum. Normally, I can’t stay awake for debates – especially the last one I saw which was the Berlusconi-Prodi battle that took place in Italy last year. (I’ll put it this way: you can’t impose a 3-minute time limit on an Italian politician.)
But this one was no snoozer. In fact, I would go so far as to call it interesting. As observed on Online Video Watch, "Ordinary Americans are far more interesting than politicians. And the
draw became not duels of words but the question of how to best improve
the United States."
True. There was little room for running off on tangents or candidate-bashing. Contenders Sens. Joseph Biden, Chris Dodd, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Bill Richardson were all lined up like sitting ducks on the stage at the Citadel and had to answer questions like, "Will you be different than do-nothing officials who can’t do their jobs?" (See here for a complete transcript.)
The questions were submitted on YouTube
- about 3,000 of them were received – and narrowed down to about 50
which were then presented on the big screen by moderator Anderson
Cooper of CNN. I was skeptical at first at the abiIity of CNN to do
this "filtering" but then I remembered – the content is still
user-generated and therefore a more real voice. There were, however, a few that didn’t make the cut.
A Not-So-Complete List of What You Didn’t See
Bjorn Svenson, who is dressed as a Viking and claims to be originally from Norway, wanted to know what the candidates plan to do about illegal immigration.
A San Rafael woman dressed like an outlaw and asked what will be done to stop predatory lending.
Groucho from Los Angeles inquiring into the problems of home ownership affordability.
And my favorite, a question about telephone outsourcing, sung by a woman in a pink bathrobe.
But even with these questions left unaired, the entire event was still rather lighthearted. CNN commentators noted that the format worked well. "I got a great kick out of it," one admitted. Really, it was the spirit of the Internet translated into politics: informal, to-the-point, forthright, and sometimes downright funny.
Maybe it was because they’re Democrats, but I was impressed by most of the candidates ability to adapt to the different types of questions. (I wonder how the Republicans will fare on September 17th.)
Speaking of gray-haired politicos, there were a choice few who got a little riled up over the war and tax questions but lost energy and started murmuring when it came to social issues. I thought that Barack and Hillary were by far the most consistent. The audience agreed: Obama was the winner of CNN’s focus group and Clinton won the SurveyUSA instapoll.
